der present
conditions is important, but it is by no means adequate. The right of
the majority to elect one or the other of two men, both of whom may have
been nominated through the machinations of a corrupt and selfish
minority, does not give the people any real control over the officials
whom they vote into office. What they need, to ensure responsibility, is
the power to make a real, not a merely nominal choice, coupled with the
power to remove in case the person selected should lose the confidence
of the majority.

The plan for depriving the minority of the power to control the
selection of public officials, which is now rapidly gaining adherents
among the advocates of political reform, is the direct primary. That
some such change in our method of nominating candidates is necessary to
make the so-called popular election of public officials anything more
than an empty form is apparent to any intelligent student of American
politics. But any proposal to deprive the minority of this power must
encounter the determined opposition of the party machine and the various
private interests which now prosper at the expense of the people. These
opponents of political reform are continually declaiming against the
corruption and incapacity of the people and trying to make it appear
that a government can be no better than its source--those who elect the
public officials. That a government is not likely to be better than the
people whom it represents may be admitted. But this is aside from the
question. Our present system in its practical operation is not a
democracy. It is not truly representative, but misrepresentative. To
prevent this evil--this betrayal of public trust in the interest of the
minority--is the aim of the direct primary. That it will go far toward
breaking the power of the machine may be safely predicted, and that it
will be generally adopted as soon as the people realize its significance
there is scarcely room for doubt.

But while the direct nomination of candidates would doubtless go far
toward making public officials respect the wishes of the people, it
would not provide adequate protection against misconduct in office under
our plan of election for a definite term without any effective power of
removal. A corrupt official may often find that by favoring private
interests at the expense of the people who have elected him, he can
afford to forfeit all chance of re-election. The independence of public
official